Sony CDX-400 400 Disc CD Changer PC Control Project

DiscManager Now Defunct

Due to repeated hardware failures and decreasing overall reliability, I decided to buy the Nirvis CDJ product, which uses a 2-way serial link to build a database, monitor status and send commands. It is superior in every respect, but is of course more expensive.

Check out: www.nirvis.com http://www.nirvis.com

Now for the history...

This idea behind this project was born after buying the CD changer. It is time-consuming to assign groups, artist names, and tedious to scan through and try to remember where a particular disc is. I am always adding discs, removing old ones, and compiling the best songs of multiple CDs onto 1 disc, so a flexible system was needed.

I began looking for products, like the s-Link-E and the software created for it. The s-link-E cost $299 at that time (it may be less now) so I decided to hack the Sony 2-way sLink connections on the back of the CD player.

This did not work, since the only port I could gain reasonable control of on my PC was the printer port, and VB5 could not cycle the signals , or poll the incoming data fast enough to prevent the CDX-400 from timing out.

So I decided to do a 1-way interface, using Infrared signals. Backing this up was a simple database. This would contain artist, album, and music genre names, with no limit to the number of categories an album could be listed under. To make maintenance of the display text easier, it would be capable of sending names to the player as I would, operating the remote control.

http://www.ziplabel.com/cir/

The above web address is where I found the solution. I ended up calling DOS in the background of Win95 and using the POWERIR.EXE downloadable at the site. I built a box with the IR input and output and recorded the signals. My program emulates the remote control, playing back signals in sequence.

My database uses simple, character delineated text files. I load these into collection objects indexed in various ways for quick access. This was simpler and cheaper than buying and installing Access, etc.

CDX.txt
CDXArtists.txt
CDXGroups.txt


Here's a few pictures....


This is the basic layout. Genres are on the Left, Albums in the middle, and the list of albums to be sent as a program can be put in the right bin.

Here I have selected a genre, and typed the first letter into the search box.

Two more letters, and we are at the one we want.

By double-clicking in the album list, I can add albums to a program.

By clicking on albums in the program bin, I can re-order them.

Selecting two genres brings up albums in both, rather than those that have membership in both. This was a decision based on my listening habits.

Here is the IR device itself.

Another view of IR box.



I decided not to sell this item for several reasons. The recorded IR signals are unlikely to be usable on a different PC, and would have to be re-recorded for each user. The program has many bugs and many odd behaviors that I tolerate because the program is my own creation. To prepare it for market would not be worth the money I would get from shareware registration. I have no intention of servicing this software on top of a full time job.




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